The Las Vegas Raiders' hiring of Pete Carroll has Maxx Crosby pumped up -- even more than usual.
The star defensive end, subject of trade wish-casting by fans around the NFL, said this week on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go” podcast with Jim Gray that his mentality matches Carroll's.
"It's exciting," Crosby said of the Raiders' new coaching hire. "I think the number one thing you look at is just energy. We talked about it a few times. Competition as well. As a competitor, as somebody who brings energy all the time and lives off that and expects it from others, I love somebody with that type of mentality. So he's a winner. He's done it his whole career. And it's just exciting to see what's going to come soon."
Much like with Myles Garrett in Cleveland, trading Crosby made little sense for Vegas. The Raiders would have likely made such a move only if the respected veteran asked out. Given his comments since Carroll's hiring, such a request never sounded close.
Crosby said he spoke briefly with Carroll and new general manager John Spytek and looks forward to the new direction in the Raiders' latest rebuild.
"The main things that (Carroll) talked about is, we're going right now," Crosby added. "We're not wasting time. That's the one thing he mentioned to me after his press conference. We're going to get this thing rolling. So, it's exciting. That's my mentality every year. I want to win every year. That's the competition in me, and I see that in him. I feel like everybody, from the new ownership group, from (owner) Mark (Davis), everybody's on the same mindset when it comes to attacking this new regime."
Crosby has two years left on his four-year, $94 million contract extension inked in 2022. It's possible having zero guaranteed dollars left could become an issue. However, given Crosby's comments throughout the process, that's a red herring at this stage.
Things can always change, but the Raiders trading Crosby felt like a nonstarter the moment Carroll was hired.
